Dismantling Segregating Education and the European Court of Human Rights. D.H. and Others vs. Czech Republic: Towards an Inclusive Education?

Abstract

The case of D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic1 (hereinafter referred to as the D.H. or ostrava case) is a landmark case brought to the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Strasbourg Court, court or ECtHR) by the Budapestbased European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) on behalf of 18 Roma children from ostrava, the Czech Republic’s third largest city, who, between 1996 and 1999, were placed in special schools for children with learning difficulties either directly or after a period in an ordinary primary school. In the Czech Republic, ‘special schools’ were a category of specialized schools intended for children with mild learning disabilities who were unable to attend ‘ordinary’ or specialized primary schools. By law, the decision to place a child in a special school was taken by the head teacher on the basis of the results of tests to measure the child’s intellectual capacity carried out in educational psychology and child guidance centres, and the decision required the consent of the parent or legal representative of the child concerned. In the D.H. case, the applicants’ parents consented and, in some instances, expressly requested their children’s placement in a special school. Following the unsuccessful filing of complaints in domestic courts in 2000, the applicants turned to the Strasbourg Court, alleging that their assignment to special schools for children with learning disabilities contravened the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the convention or ECHR). They argued that their placement in special schools amounted to a general practice that had resulted